


Raising a Stink

by nchi_wana



Category: Et Cetera (Manga)
Genre: Bathing/Washing, Gen, Humor, Mid-Canon, Nudity, Teasing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-12
Updated: 2013-01-12
Packaged: 2018-01-03 21:26:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1073236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nchi_wana/pseuds/nchi_wana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mingchao has an unfortunate encounter with a skunk.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Raising a Stink

The first indicator was the smell.

Benkate rose from her place near the campfire and cast about to see where the stench could be coming from. Baskerville placed a hand over his mouth and nose, looking over his shoulder into the evening landscape of forest beyond their camp.

“What _is_ that?” Baskerville asked, his voice strained.

“A skunk,” Benkate replied matter-of-factly. She planted her hands on her hips and continued to glance around.

Mingchao was absent, as she had left camp to capture some food for dinner, but she’d been gone longer than expected and her two friends were becoming concerned.

“Maybe we should go out and look for her?” Baskerville suggested. “She could be in danger…”

Benkate shook her head, a smile spreading over her face. “Not that girl. If anything, someone else would be in danger of _her_. Let’s just give her a little more time.” She took her seat back on the log across from the man dressed as a priest.

As they sat there, the skunk smell became stronger. Benkate heard her companion cough as he waved a hand in front of his face. He became increasingly bothered by the odor. She grinned, somewhat enjoying seeing him suffer.

“Aw, come on. It’s not that bad,” she said, holding back her laughter. “I’m sure you’ve smelled worse, like, I don’t know, blood and smoke?”

The fake priest coughed again. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“Sure you don’t.”

But the smell only worsened, and even now Benkate was beginning to feel a little nauseated. She started wondering if perhaps they ought to move their camp.

She almost jumped up when she saw a figure emerging from the forest beyond. Before long, Mingchao walked into the camp, her expression pinched.

“What took you so long?” Benkate groused.

Three rabbits hung from a long stick the girl rested over her shoulder. “Sorry,” was all Mingchao had to say. She freed the dead rabbits from their bonds and immediately went to work skinning them with a knife. For one so young, she was extremely adept at cooking wild game. Benkate never ceased to be impressed by her.

At this point the skunk smell had become so strong that Benkate feared it would permeate even her clothes. “Where the _hell_ is that smell coming from?!” She stood up again and glared into the trees.

“Uh, Benkate,” Baskerville said, just barely above a whisper. Benkate jerked her gaze on him. He pointed in a discreet sort of way toward the girl, and the gunslinger suddenly understood.

The source of the odor was coming from _Mingchao_.

It took Mingchao a moment to realize someone was looming over her. Benkate must’ve appeared like a mighty Amazon warrior judging by the way the girl shrunk away in alarm.

Benkate pierced her with a menacing stare. “Are you kidding me?! Did you get sprayed by a skunk while you were out?”

Mingchao tittered and produced her best innocent smile. “W-What are you talking about?”

“You reek, Mingchao! Did you think we wouldn’t notice?”

“But I’m not the one who stinks! It just stinks out there!”

Before Mingchao could scramble away, Benkate grabbed her up and took a whiff of her clothes. She almost gagged. “It _is_ you!”

“I didn’t mean to! I thought it was a rabbit!” Mingchao began to struggle in the gunslinger’s grip. “Help me, Mr. Priest!”

Baskerville was too busy keeping a hand over his nose. “You’re going to have to get rid of that smell,” he told her from behind his hand. “We can’t go to sleep like this.”

Benkate dropped the girl. “But how? Just washing her off with water isn’t going to help!”

“I think there’s a town about five miles from here. There ought to be a bathhouse there. If we can get ahold of some baking soda, vinegar, and laundry soap, it should help.”

Benkate gawked. “Five miles? Are you joking? How am I supposed to get there without barfing?!”

“Noooo!” Mingchao objected. “I don’t need a bath! This smell—it might be good luck or something!”

“An animal’s butt-smell might only be good luck if you’re planning on being friendless the rest of your life,” Benkate said. “On the bright side, it might be good for all of us. I can’t remember the last time I had a bath.”

“Me, neither,” said Baskerville.

Benkate wasn’t sure he was agreeing with her or talking about himself. “Well, if we’re gonna give her a bath then we’d better get going now.” She reached out to latch into Mingchao’s collar just as the girl made a move to bolt.

“But we just made camp,” Mingchao complained. Her lower lip quivered as her eyes got bigger. She directed her attention at Baskerville, but he was unmoved. He shook his head at her.

“We’re not waiting until tomorrow,” he told her. “I can’t stand it. If we wait, then you’ll be sleeping far away from us. You’re not sleeping anywhere near me.”

“And therein lies the problem, Mingchao,” Benkate said with a lewd smirk. The girl blushed.

Mingchao was ordered to stand some distance away while the other two packed up their camp on the horses. She walked half the way until her feet hurt, and then was graciously allowed to ride one of the horses.

They arrived in the small town well after the sun went down, and when they spotted the public bathhouse, Benkate and Baskerville huddled together to scrounge up enough money to pay the proprietors.

Benkate counted the coins in her palm. “We’re broke as heck. Baskerville, why don’t you sell yourself and make some money?”

The priest stared aghast.

“I’m just kidding! Close your mouth before you eat a fly.”

As she turned to address Mingchao, however, she was shocked the see the girl halfway down the block.

“She’s making a run for it!” Benkate shouted. She took off after her, and Baskerville followed close behind.

They caught up to Mingchao only because she tripped over a wagon rut in the road. Benkate was on top of her before the girl could regain her footing, and Baskerville helped to drag the escapee back toward the bathhouse.

“Honestly, Mingchao!” Benkate said, trying to catch her breath. “Why are you so against taking a bath? It’s good for you.”

“I don’t want to bathe in vinegar!” Mingchao replied. She dragged her feet as her friends hauled her along. “How is it any better? It stinks, too!”

“You’re lucky you’re not bathing in my puke right now.” Benkate coughed as the smell wafted up her nose.

“See? It is good luck!”

As they approached the front door of the bathhouse, Baskerville said, “I’ll go get the supplies. The general store should still be open at this hour. Guard Mingchao.”

When he left, Mingchao reached out to him. “Nooo! Don’t leave me here with her!”

“Shut it!” Benkate barked. “We’re going inside. At least try to behave yourself.”

When they went through the front door, there was a front desk with a tall, thin man behind it. The lanterns and lamps cast a dim glow around him, but as soon as he looked up the smell must’ve hit him, because he staggered back and slapped a hand over his nose. “What is that?!” he squawked.

“Don’t worry,” Benkate assured him. “We’re gonna get it taken care of.” With one hand still gripping Mingchao, she placed the money on the desk. “There’s a little extra there for the smell. Sorry.”

She dragged Mingchao down a faintly lit hallway where they entered a room. The space before them contained two simple dressing screens in each of the farthest corners, two accompanying chairs, and a duo of enameled cast iron tubs. Benkate whistled as she beheld them.

“Nice place, and clean, too! Not bad for a small town,” she said. Mingchao just whimpered.

When the tubs were filled and ready, Baskerville came in a little later with the necessary supplies: a large bottle of vinegar, a hefty bag of baking soda, and a large bar of laundry soap. Benkate’s hand never left Mingchao’s collar during the wait. They watched as Baskerville dumped the baking soda and vinegar into one of the tubs, and then he handed Benkate the bar of laundry soap along with a second pair of extra clothes for Mingchao.

“It’s all up to you from here,” he told her, and left it at that.

When he was gone, Mingchao dutifully undressed behind her screen while Benkate waited. The gunslinger worried that her own bathwater would become cold the longer she delayed, but getting rid of the skunk smell was her first priority.

When Mingchao climbed into the tub, there was a sharp gasp.

“Too hot?” Benkate asked her.

Mingchao shook her head, her nose crinkling. “It stinks! I hate vinegar—but in food it’s okay.”

“With you, food is okay no matter what.”

There was no objection to that.

Benkate was about to apply the soap to a wash cloth when Mingchao said, “I’ll do it!” She yanked the cloth and soap out of her friend’s hands and went to work with it. Benkate shrugged and disappeared behind her dressing screen to strip.

When she stepped into her tub, the scalding water initially burned, but after a moment of enduring the pain she felt her muscles melt and relax. She sighed in contentment.

“You’ll feel a lot better after this,” she said, smiling. “You’ll smell better, too. Don’t forget to wash your clothes when you’re done.”

“In the _bath_?” Mingchao asked. She stopped scrubbing an arm to gape at her.

“We can’t pay any more money to have someone do your laundry!” Benkate snapped. Water splashed over the sides of her tub as she turned to glare.

Mingchao looked like she wanted to bite back, but she clamped her mouth shut and continued scouring her other arm.

Benkate pulled the tie from her hair and let the crimson mane fall around her shoulders and into the steaming water. It’d been a while since she’d washed it, and she was amazed it didn’t smell like the girl had. She reached for a fresh bar of soap that had been sitting on the chair next to her tub. Living on the frontier with towns dozens of miles apart didn’t always allow for such luxuries as baths, let alone baths with soap. Sure, she could bathe in a river or lake, but there was nothing like a soak in near-scalding water and some fragrant soap to rejuvenate a woman and make her feel beautiful again. Beauty was not always an asset Benkate managed to carry considering her lifestyle.

After a while, the only sound in the room came from Mingchao as she splashed around in her tub, taking the washcloth to every part of her in a desperate effort to banish the stench as best she could. Every so often she’d vent a noise of disgust at the smell.

When she was done, she left the tub to dry off and retrieve her clothes. She came out from the dressing screen with a towel wrapped around her. She then submerged her clothes in the soapy water and swirled them around. Benkate regretted that they didn’t have a washboard, but she was telling the truth when she said they didn’t have the money to buy laundry services.

Mingchao dressed herself in her extra clothes and combed her hair out with her fingers. She hadn’t spoken for a while, so Benkate said, “So, did it help?”

The girl sniffed her arm. “I think. I don’t really smell anything.”

 _Good enough for me,_ Benkate thought as she leaned back into the water again. She dunked her head under, wishing she could stay under to savor the warmth. If only she’d been born a fish. She came back up with a gasp and a satisfied sigh. “Enjoy it while it lasts,” she mumbled to herself.

But it didn’t. As soon as she opened her eyes again, she glimpsed Mingchao heading for the door, her arms full of a bundle of clothes. Benkate immediately recognized them as hers, minus the chaps.

Water sloshed over the lip of her tub again as she sat up. “Hey! What do you think you’re doing?!”

Mingchao stopped suddenly at the door and turned in surprise. She’d been caught. As Benkate slowly rose from the water, the girl took another step just outside the door.

“ _Don’t you dare_ ,” Benkate said threateningly. “Mingchao, I swear, if you run off with my—“

Mingchao fled before she could finish, and Benkate tumbled out of the tub and onto the floor. She swept up a towel as she scrambled for the exit.  In the hall, Mingchao stood several feet away, watching in fascination as the near-nude woman crawled along, trying to pull the towel over herself, only to find the cloth too small to fit around her body. Benkate snarled at her.

“You replaced my towel with a rag!” she said, her breaths coming in small gasps the angrier she became. Her face began to flush red with fury. “You little creep! I’m gonna—“

She didn’t find it worth the time to finish, so she lunged for the girl with one hand outstretched to grab her clothes, but Mingchao bounded away in laughter. Benkate was on her feet in a hurry.

“This is what you get for treating me like this!” Mingchao yelled over her shoulder. “I won’t give you your clothes back until you say you’re sorry!”

“You stunk, Mingchao!” Benkate shouted back. “And you weren’t going to do anything about it! What else were we supposed to do? NOW GIVE ME MY CLOTHES BACK!”

They turned a corner, but before Benkate was even two steps into the new hall, a nearby door opened and a person emerged. Benkate collided with them, and they crashed to the floor in a heap. She’d been so focused on the chase that her first instinct had been to shove off and follow Mingchao, but she happened to look down and see the unfortunate victim who had been so rudely sandwiched between the floor and a wet, naked body.

Baskerville was lying on his stomach under her, and as Benkate lifted, he twisted around to look at her. He blanched. “Benkate, why are you—“

She heard Mingchao’s taunting laugher. The girl was standing down the hall leading to the lobby. She pulled down on the skin under one eye and stuck her tongue out. Several pieces of Benkate’s clothes had fallen to the floorboards, leaving a trail. She dropped what remained in her arms, and vanished beyond the lobby where she likely left and sought refuge in the darkness of the night.

Benkate was still staring after her when she felt Baskerville struggle. “Benkate, get off of me!” he said.

She was quick to comply, but she didn’t make much of an effort to cover herself with the towel. She continued to glare in the direction Mingchao had left, her face still flushed.

“You really have no shame!” Baskerville chided, directing his sight elsewhere as he stood. He busied himself by dusting off his clothes, which weren’t dirty at all, curiously enough, although they were damp in some places. “What were you thinking, running around in…in that _condition_?!”

Benkate held back a sly smile and tried to keep her composure in her own embarrassment. “You act like you’ve never seen a naked woman before, Baskerville."  She planted a finger in his chest, causing him to lock gazes with her. “Go pick up my clothes and bring them back, or else I’m paying you a visit tonight _in this condition._ ”

With that, she stalked back to her room, her posterior exposed to the man who was probably beginning to wonder if the anti-skunk remedy would work on his eyes.

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